The journal Acta Astronautica for Sep 2025 (vol. 234) has: Hosonuma, T. Miyabara, T. Ozaki, N. et al. Autonomous optical navigation for DESTINY*: Enhancing misalignment robustness in flyby observations with a rotating… Pgs. 117 .2025.04.023Li, Y-H. Lien, W-C. Liu, S-W. Development… Read More »Note, Paper: Whip, Slip, and Flip
The three August “issues” of MNRAS (Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society) are now online and complete: Volume 541, Issue 2, August 2025 Attree, N. Gutiérrez, P. Schuckart, C. et al. Constraints on the ejecting-crust activity model on comet… Read More »Note, Paper: Proclivity to Activity
There’s a mid-month issue of Icarus, for 15 Sep (vol. 438): Jedicke, R. Alessi, E. M. Wiedner, N. et al. The steady state population of Earth’s minimoons of lunar provenance Art. 116587 .2025.116587Combi, M. R. Mäkinen, T. Bertaux, J.-L. et… Read More »Note, Paper: Mid-Icarus Edition
Not very dramatic news, but worth a post. An observer claims Color Indices of 3I/ATLAS, and a possible Type Identification: Astrophysics > Earth and Planetary Astrophysics arxiv.org/abs/2508.08829Beniyama, J. Simultaneous visible spectrophotometry of interstellar object 3I/ATLAS with Seimei/TriCCS Using the Seimei… Read More »3I CI; TI?
Referencing Taylor et al. 2024: Aug 7 Jonathan O’Callaghan The mysterious ‘dark comets’ prowling our Solar Systemwww.bbc.com/future/article/20250807-a-japanese-spacecraft-is-racing-toward-a-mysterious-dark-comet-to-discover-the-secrets-it-holds The BBC- usually pretty good on technical topics- has a nice writeup of our current state in “dark comets”- asteroids that show nongravitational… Read More »Dark “Comet”… Part Trois
A new instrument, CUBES (Cassegrain U-Band Efficient Spectrograph) has just been approved for construction and eventual installation on ESO‘s VLT (Very Large Telescope). Why is this blog-able? One of the goals- an explicit goal- is to search for asteroid water:… Read More »VLT-CUBES Approved
Additional August developments for the Vera C. Rubin Observatory. Reprising a prior post, the 2025 Rubin Community Workshop has not only happened, but now has presentations posted online: project.lsst.org/excitement-and-collaboration-2025-rubin-community-workshop There are now more details on the status update, keynote presentation,… Read More »Vera Rubin Update (August-B)
In case you had been assuming, assume no more. Science is about data and evidence: Astrophysics > Earth and Planetary Astrophysics arxiv.org/abs/2508.04675[Submitted on 6 Aug 2025]Water Detection in the Interstellar Object 3I/ATLASXing, Z. Oset, S. Noonan, J. et al. ATLAS… Read More »3I Dehydrating
Catching up with Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan (PASJ), not printing every month. In vol. 77 #4, some worthy papers: Miura, H. Yasuda, T. Thermal evolution model from cometary nuclei to asteroids considering contraction associated with ice sublimation… Read More »Note, Paper: Comet-Asteroid Matters
It will soon be time for ICAACM– the International Conference on Astronomy, Astrometry, and Celestial Mechanics, on August 9. The agenda, such as it is: www.global-meetings.com/icaacm/papers.html Unfortunately, there’s nothing posted publicly. Next best: the solicitation. (Topics include but are not… Read More »ICAACM (Astronomy, Astrometry, & Celestial Mech.) 2025